MUSCATINE, Iowa — It’s the process of creating that Muscatine artist Tony Ledtje loves, whether his media is clay, paper, or even his home.

Ledtje builds and fires stoneware pots from his home studio, where he has also taught small classes for adults. He has been making pots ever since he attended Luther College in 1972. He’s also tried his hand at collages, poetry, and — most recently — renovating the home where he and his family live.

“I always liked art, even as a kid. I had varied interests, which included the sciences all through high school. I thought I’d be a biologist of some kind, but when I went to Luther it wasn’t up my alley; I switched to art,” Ledtje says.

Ledtje focuses on functional stoneware when working on clay. He does a little throwing on the pottery wheel, but says he prefers hand building individual pieces and he recommends that anyone interested in pottery learn to hand build before worrying about the wheel.He compares learning how to throw first to attempting to read before learning the alphabet.

“Almost any skill you would learn by throwing you would learn in hand building first,” Ledtje said, pointing out that 80 percent of the creation of a thrown pot comes after it is taken off the wheel, making hand building a priority.

“The thing I like about clay is it evolves through so many processes that I love. It is geology, chemistry, and [it requires] handyman skills,” he said.

From hand building to handiwork

Ledtje is sharing his studio space with a more recent project: staining trim and moldings.

“It’s not the smoothest transition between artist to carpenter,” he said.

He and his wife, Connie Cooling, who works in respiratory therapy at Unity, own a 1920s home with a carriage house built in the late 1800s. The couple rarely hires outside help to have anything done.

“America isn’t on the forefront pushing the arts, so you learn to do everything,” Ledtje says of his need to learn and administer home renovations.

From pottery to pen

For a time, Ledtje stepped away from clay and picked up the pen and started attending writer’s workshops in the Bucktown Building in Davenport.

“I started writing poetry because there was no time for clay. Clay has an unforgiving studio cycle. You find yourself spending more time keeping things damp than working on them.”

He compares poetry to pot making. “In the English language there are so many words that you can be precise. It’s pleasurable. Everything, every aspect, is so important. It’s the same with pots. There is unity, expression, attention to detail, design or tone. There is a texture to a piece that could be either abrasive or smooth.”

Random precision

When Ledtje isn’t working on his home, he’s working on his most recent art form: collages.

He describes collages as work with a touch of the unanticipated, similar to life with children, what’s found in nature, and “life in particular.”

He said the art form is much more precise than what some might think. Each piece of paper is carefully placed in the overall design which is sandwiched between two pieces of glass. Once the collage is complete, Ledtje must photograph it. He then deconstructs the piece and reconstructs it using adhesive and the photo as a guide.

A return to clay

Ledtje is itching to get back to clay, and with both children in college this fall, he may get his wish.  Ann will be a freshman at University of Iowa and Paul will be a junior at Iowa State.

“I aim at working on artwork full time in the foreseeable future,” he said.

Though he said he’s always liked clay, Ledtje said his clay work may morph into tile; but he’ll always consider hand-built pots both meticulous and rewarding work.

Ledtje has shown work at art festivals in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Last fall, he sold a couple of original works at a showing at The River’s Edge Gallery.

The art of work

Ledtje says any occupation can be an art form. “You know when you’ve met someone who has found it — when they’re in their element — just by how they integrate their work or interests into their conversations and way of life.”

Referring to a friend’s occupation, Ledtje said “A backhoe operator can be an artist. Aside from the artistry of it, what you don’t know about a backhoe fills a life.”